Perverting Justice

Steve: we’ll start with making out and move from there

PJ: kewl. i like to kiss. then what are we gonna do. im gettin xcited. lol.

PJ: ur hella cute

Steve: you look good too.

(The PJ operative and the mark usually exchange scanned-in photographs of each other.)

Steve: next il probably start rubbin your tits and fingering you.

PJ: kewl . . . then what?

Steve: hmm . . . do you give head?

PJ: yeah but i dont know if i am very good at it yet.

Steve: well we can 69 and you can practice.

PJ: oh kewl i never done that b4

The online conversation continued for about an hour. PJ promised to call Steve later.

And it certainly did.

Shortly after his bust, Steve was confronted in a chat room by PJ member “jennyd_68,” who wanted to talk with him about his “problem.” Their Internet conversation was posted in a PJ follow-up forum:

Steve: My approach to the Internet is different than yours. I come online to do what I want and say what I want anonymously, never moving beyond the Internet.

He goes on to say that girls lead him on all the time, and he does the same to them.

Steve: Maybe that’s my problem, lack of respect, but not having sex with minors.

Jenny argues back: “But lack of respect, Steve, doesn’t cause a guy to talk like this, with a child. If it was an adult, we wouldn’t care . . . it’s kids we are talking about. No matter how anonymous you feel online, I’ll never understand how that = it’s ok to talk sex with children.

Steve tries to explain that just because someone says she is a certain age on the Internet doesn’t mean she is telling the truth.

Steve: I agree, Jenny, but understand, I have come across plenty of phonies online. In my mind they are all fake. I agree that speaking like this to children is wrong, but I had nothing to prove to me she was who she said she was . . . then I got creeped out. Then boom this happens.

Jenny: So wouldn’t you think it would be safer to assume that it IS a child, if they say they are?

Steve: Yes, i do, very much so . . . but i don’t have all these things goin’ thru my mind. I’m a 21-year-old student who parties more than he studies, and I don’t assume these things, mainly because I dont have a son or daughter to fear for.

Jenny: What if you did have a little girl, Steve? And a guy your age wanted to do those things with her? What would you do? Honestly?

Steve: I would be angry, but this is like a war on drugs, are you gonna rid the world of these people? And make the world safe again? I like where you are coming from, but the approach is wrong. I agree with all your base intentions. But doing it online based on profiles and info you believe to be true isn’t very solid, and although you may have crushing methods of getting your point across, its not the right way, because I am not that person you are fighting against. But because I talked to your person, I am caught up in this.

Von Erck says PJ’s tactics — the phone calls, the e-mails, the ruining of lives — are warranted: “It’s no different than watching a guy proposition a teen in a park and then putting up warnings in the community about the individual.”

Von Erck claims he officially condemns harassment. What is done in the follow-up forums is simply “the will of the people,” he maintains.

“There is no right to privacy,” he insists, acting as judge, jury and constitutional expert, “when you’re attempting to solicit a minor.”